Some Exercises in Form

The Ultimate Art

Under capitalist democracy there exists the deep anxiety
Of the artist who is never able to escape the role afforded
Him by the plutocrats that has divided his beloved country
Into two classes, wolves and sheep, a hierarchy regarded
With much merit, a fate most inescapable in the industrialised
World where the artist’s identity is defined by what he does
And where he sits in the manufactory, churning out glossy
Eye candy, romantic verses, regurgitated music and videos
Here the production is immense and builds the artist’s bevy
Of existence by expectation, of a life expressed in anxiety.

And so the artist rebels, attempting to escape categorisation
He abhors traditional ethics and morality, defies wolves and
Sheep, but failing miserably and falling deeply into alienation
He finds his own subjectivity unbearable in the presence and
Possibility of his master, the Other, the system that enslaves
him with brotherly gaze, the eye of God that is always present
But is never seen, and only against which the rest of his days
Are given meaning as he makes art for – , makes art against -,
Makes art from – , makes art with – and of – , limiting his free
Will and making sense of one and only one thing — suicide.